Evolito electric motor for Flying Whales’ airship

February 4, 2025

French airship developer Flying Whales has selected UK electric propulsion specialist Evolito’s D250 electric propulsion motor for its LCA6OT airship, due to make its inaugural test flight in 2027.
Describing its electric motors as the smallest and lightest in their class, “the D50 offers industry leading power density of 18.5kW/kg providing 240kW peak power and weighing 13kg,” explains Evolito. 32 motors will be required to power each Flying Whales airship, which – at 200m long – has been designed to transport heavy cargo loads of up to 60 tonnes.
Flying Whales selected the Evolito electric motor for its “exceptional power and torque density,” adding that “another critical factor” was the manufacturer’s ability to scale the production of motors to meet Flying Whales’ demands. “When designing an airship, weight is critical,” elaborated Flying Whales CEO Vincent Guibout. “In the three years we have been working together, Evolito has demonstrated the ability to deliver best in class power density from its unique axial flux electric motors… there is an excellent synergy between our teams”.
Evolito CEO and co-founder Dr Chris Harris added that “Evolito’s unique axial-flux technology enables a new class of lightweight, compact and high-performance electric motor, opening up many new aircraft designs, mission profiles and use cases”.
Flying Whales also signed a partnership with Safran Electrical & Power back in 2021, with the latter to provide the aircraft’s electric generation system, the complete electric distribution system, the power converters, and the batteries. At the time, Safran indicated the contract “concerns the entire fleet of 150 airships for the first ten years of production”.
Evolito was awarded Design Organisation Approval by the UK’s CAA in 2023 and is currently working towards Production Authorisation Approval later this year. It adds that its electric axial flux motors also have applications across the aerospace sector, “for rotorcraft applications such as eVTOLs, UAM, helicopters, as well as single or multi-propeller fixed-wing, general aviation aircraft”.